Cinema Sunday ~ To Have And Have Not (1944)

Lauren Bacall & Humphrey Bogart star in the movie that brought them together beginning their romance. In fact, this is Lauren Bacall's movie debut...she was only 19 years old at the time. (funny little side note, the wardrobe for Bogie in basically the same here as it is for his later flick The African Queen...just add a few more wrinkles to his face)

They fill the roles of a tough ex-patriate boat captain Harry Morgan (which I found hysterical at the thought that here was "Captain Morgan") and a singer, stranded American Marie Browning ("Slim") (Bacall), who fool Nazis on the island of Martinique. Harry's "rummie" friend Eddie (Walter Brennan) & hotel-keeper/Free French leader Gerard ("Frenchie") (Marcel Dalio) frequent the screen as well.


Frenchie pressures Morgan to use his boat to service some "friends" of his...meaning smuggle in some fellows. To which Morgan staunchly refuses to take part in the current political upheaval. Enter Eddie...and his question that just makes me laugh (I don't know why):
Eddie: Say, was you ever bit by a dead bee?
Beauclerc: I have no memory of ever being bit by any kind of bee.
Slim: (interjecting) Were you?
Eddie: You're alright, lady. You and Harry's the only one that ever...
Morgan: Don't forget Frenchie.
Eddie: That's right. You and Harry and Frenchie. You know, you got to be careful of dead bees if you're goin' around barefooted, 'cause if you step on them they can sting you just as bad as if they was alive, especially if they was kind of mad when they got killed. I bet I been bit a hundred times that way.
Slim: You have? Why don't you bite them back?
Eddie: That's what Harry always says. But I ain't got no stinger.

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